


Just need a little breather

by ULinkOtaku



Category: The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Drinking, Fluff and Angst, Fluff mainly at the end though, I guess this is angst, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Multi, No Beta, Pre-Canon, no beta we die like men, polyfeels, pre-game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:29:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26834476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ULinkOtaku/pseuds/ULinkOtaku
Summary: Juli invited Joseph to a club, and joseph has a tiny existential crisis.(Still bad at summaries.)
Relationships: Juli Kidman/Joseph Oda, Sebastian Castellanos/Joseph Oda, Sebastian Castellanos/Juli Kidman/Joseph Oda
Kudos: 7





	Just need a little breather

**Author's Note:**

> Now that I've written a two thousand word thing, I'm calling it a day now. : )  
> Here's the playlist I was listening to for 90% of me writing this, if you're interested:   
> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Jw1wrRktQmwaNmx7liAGz?si=LJ9HyDa4RYCQpjncvG-qRw

Juli invited him to a club, to pseudo celebrate a case they solved yesterday, and it went off the rails pretty quickly. They lost Connelly immediately, Sebastian sat at the bar and now refuses to move, Juli was dancing with other attendees, and Joseph was ordering shots one after the other. Fuck it, why not? He rarely drinks anyway, may as well drink while he can. He was sad about Sebastian's position, but he couldn't do anything about a tipsy, stubborn, Seb. 

And now, an hour later, he is about ready to fucking cry. He now remembers why he doesn't drink, he remembers every mistake he makes and murders himself over it, over and over. Never seeming to end. Even with Sebastian there, he feels so alone, Sebastian is looking with hazy eyes at his glass. Like he expects it to refill on its own. Joseph gazed back to his own glass, his what? Sixteenth shot? Everything's kinda slurring together, like his speech as he climbs out of his seat, "G-Gottaaa goo," he almost falls off with a hiccup. "You gonna be okay on your own?" Sebastian looked over his shoulder, speaking with an ease that only comes with experience. 

Joseph dismisses him with an awkward hand, shit who's gonna look after Seb? He doesn't even know Joseph is going home. 

Okay, calm down. He does this alone all the time, he needs to stop coddling him, Seb's an adult. Joseph is pushing the door open with a push of his curled upper body, his arms are shaking too much to try. He takes a good second to breathe the outside air, juxtaposed by the suffocating smell of alcohol and all sorts of body odor at the bar, as he finally stumbles away from the door and pulls out his phone for his GPS with the tiny rational thoughts still left. 

.5 miles away… it says 15 minutes. He faintly heard some whistle or something, he takes a look over and the creep is staring right at him. Shit, guess I'll start now then. He clutches the back of his jacket closer to him as he speed-walks, smells faintly like… coconut? Probably Juli, regardless, it's comforting as hell as he's sniffling and shivering at the autumn air, hiding his red face in his jacket. The cold is already seeping into his bones, his steps feel heavier, why the fuck can he see his breath? He lets out a long huff, his nose already runny. His eyes are trying to well up, but he has to get home, before anyone can see him like this. 

He starts to speed up more in his panic, what if Seb saw through the hand wave and is following him right now? Now he can finally give a retort to his brain 'he doesn't care enough to abandon his booze just to tail my ass,' as much as he wishes that were true sometimes, it just never ends up that way. Just another stupid fantasy to smack himself later for. Sebastian, is, was married, he still wears his ring. He can't intrude on that and go all, 'sorry your wife is missing, you wanna fuck?' That'd be horrible, put Seb off, and ruin one of the last good relationships he has with someone. Even if it is usually dulled out with Seb's constant drinking, cradling his flask like it's some sort of replacement child. 

'It's just a coping mechanism,' he says to himself, 'he'll go clean eventually.' It's been what, two years since he started coming to work with scotch on his breath? Fat fucking chance. He misses the older times so much. Him and Seb actually used to hang out, it was smaller things, walks, lunches, but Joseph really appreciated it. He didn't really talk to anyone else, inside or outside of work, but Sebastian did both regularly, And now that... they're gone. Sebastian's stopped. Stopped hanging out with him, stopped having fun, stopped taking care of himself, just seemingly stopped caring altogether. And Joseph knows the reasons he ended up like this, knows about all of it in excruciating detail, but it doesn't make the fall look any less tragic or dramatic. Losing them made him lose himself. His only reason to keep going is to try and find Myra, see where she 'ran off' to, a fucking conspiracy theory of all things. Even when Joseph tries to reach out to him, tries to invite him places outside of bars and clubs, Seb just shrugs him off, 'I still have some more work to do,' with a glug of his flask. He's like his drunken father or something, and it's frustrating as hell.

He checks his phone again with numbing fingers, 10 minutes, only five have gone by. He should calm down. God, he came out here to have fun with friends, and now he just feels more terrible and lonely than before. He'll have to apologize to Juli when his brain is in proper working order. 

Huh, Juli. She's such a mystery of a woman. While she has visited his apartment and Sebastian's flat on very rare occasions, neither of them have asked, or been invited, to go to Kidman's yet. She probably has a bunch of shelves filled with cat stuff, she always sends him videos of them that she finds online. It's really cute, but not in the middle of work when he's messaging her about a case and she just sends him a video of a cat trying to cross a windowsill to get to another window. It'd be frustrating if she wasn't laughing so hard about it across from him, smiling so bright. She's really cute when she's passionate about something, that's probably when he realized he liked her too. Because liking Seb alone wasn't enough heart break. 

They're so above his league at this point, he can't even hope to get as good as them without getting immediate rushes of disappointment through his veins, it feels real as he weakly itches at his arms. Even if either of them were looking for partners they'd probably just choose each other, he wouldn't even blame them, they'd be great together, Joseph probably wouldn't survive the amount of pure envy and finally off himself like he keeps on planning to, but who would care if they were happier without him? It'd be better for them.

He glares at his phone screen again, 4, damn it. He just wants to curl up in bed, cry a lot, pass out, and pretend he didn't think any of this. Hell, if he's lucky he'll just forget this even happened. Christ, he rubs his eyes with his palms harshly, shit. Not now. Damn it. He can finally see, through really blurry eyes, a couple of street signs he definitely recognizes. He just needs to stop overthinking stuff for one seco-

His hands barely catch himself from crashing face first, he notices they got a bit scratched up on the uneven concrete as he stands himself back up shakily, chuckling self-deprecatingly. Of course. They're already turning red as he puts one of them into his pockets, he grabs his keys and finally slides one of them into the lock. It's wrong, another wrong, another wrong. Joseph finally holds them up to his face. Black with the family seal, black with the fami- found it. He unlocks his door and tries to walk inside and then his left shoulder gets jerked back by a hand. Joseph immediately freezes up and slowly gazes behind him. "Juuuli...?" 

She sighed, "yeah. What are you doing?" Joseph points at a plant in the door way, "going iiin my house. Whyyy?" She walks a bit closer and takes his glasses off carefully, "no, your eyes are bright red, puffy, and damp. Why did you leave?" Joseph glances around the quiet road, "I juust got stresssed out is aaalll, not really a faann." She raises an eyebrow, "you sure? Sebastian seemed pretty worried." Joseph blinks off some of the haze, "Is he ok-" Juli put the glasses back on his face. "Yes, he's in my backseat, Connelly too. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who didn't drink," Kidman places a hand on the doorway as she leaned closer to him, "what did you drink?" Joseph looks at her hand, "a lot of kaamikaaazeeees, I think," Joseph combs a hand through his hair, "It's reallyyy fuzzy."

Kidman lets out a low sigh, "would you mind if we slept over? We're all really tired," she looks back at her car, "I guess nott." Joseph cuddles closer to his jacket as they walk to the car, Seb has a recently lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth as he talks calmly to a twitchy Connelly, Kidman climbs into the driver's seat briefly, cuts the engine, and unlocks the doors. Joseph opens the door for Sebastian, he bumps his head slightly on the way out but is otherwise fine. He rubs his eyes and yawns, "hey Joseph, what're we doing?" Kidman has a hand across Connelly's shoulder as she brings him up to the doorway, "we're gonnaa haaave a sleep-oooover, apparently." Connelly does a week woop, fist-pumping in the air. "You neeeed help up too?" Sebastian looks at him, "do you?," Joseph shakes his head, Sebastian takes the few steps up with Joseph following closely behind. 

They make it to the living room and collapse on the couch instantly, squeezing together to fit. "Be right back," Kidman goes back into hallway, she comes back a minute later with his key,"be more careful Jo," she places it on the coffee table. Connelly groans slightly as he relaxes against the couch, "I could pass out right noooww," he pats Joseph's thigh lightly, "nice couch." Joseph chuckles, "thanks Oscarr," he removes Connelly's hand as he stands up, "need to gooo find some beddinnng. Go ahead aand sit down Kidman." Joseph goes to his closet and finds a long forgotten sleeping bag, three extra blankets, and two pillows. Perfect. He brings them to the drowsy group, "Kidmaan, you take tthheee bed forr being the driiiver, Connelly can take the coouuch," he tosses a blanket to him as Kidman goes to his room. "Sebb you want a pallet? I caan make it for youuu," he raises a brow, "and what are you gonna do?" Joseph gestures the sleeping bag to himself, "will prob'ly be a bit small thooough." 

Sebastian takes the bag and most of the blankets from him, "then we'll use it for the pallet-thing then." Joseph blinks at him, "huh?" Sebastian lays it flat on the floor, "I don't want you sleeping in something too small. We can share," he lays the thinner blanket on top of it, looking at Joseph over top of it, "Unless you don't want to." Joseph finally kicks back into reality and places the pillows on top, "more surprised youuu suggested it." Joseph looks over to Connelly who's passed out cold, "Already? Where'd he gooo in the club?" Sebastian sat him down on the pallet, "opposite corner of the bar from us, he spotted an old friend. They started challenging each other over shots, Con won believe it or not." Joseph placed his jacket on the table and stared at the blanket in his hands, "Hmm." Sebastian removed his tie quickly and sat down on the opposite side, "you good over there?" Joseph handed a corner of it to Seb, "I guess." Sebastian toed his shoes off and paused, "look, if you don't want to-" Joseph looked over at Sebastian, "I do," he hopes that doesn't sound weird as weird as it is. 

He finally lies down, Joseph slowly does the same, and he turns to him. Sebastian is… looking at him, watching him maybe, should he break the silence? But he actually seems calm for the first time in a while, no hunched shoulders, no brow wrinkles, just him looking at Joseph. Not much tension to be found other than Joseph being stupid and over thinking this, but that's pretty normal now. Their eyes are finally lidded as they smile and seemingly fall under the blanket of sleep overtaking this home. 

**Author's Note:**

> What this was originally named:  
> [I lowkey, can not fucking stand the old one. I'm pretty fucking sure I actually know some of the goddamn story, now that I have played everything, I still have a couple of the Executioner's boss battles to do(Ahem, Seb), but you know-]  
> Sorry for the unneeded info:
> 
> I sincerely hope someone liked this.


End file.
